Cases

From the 1961 Epiphone catalog: "Cortez - distinctive in appearance with a beautiful golden shaded flat top and traditional shape. Distinctive in features with a mellow, resonant tone and fast, low action neck. Top is specially selected Spruce providing a fine sounding board, back and rims are Mahogany. Mahogany neck with adjustable truss rod. Rosewood fingerboard with pearl dot inlays. Large...

Leo Fender debuted the new Jazzmaster model in the summer 1958 catalog with a radical new shape: the offset contour waist. Many Jazz players at the time preferred playing guitar sitting down and Leo wanted the body to fit comfortably over the player's knee, fitted nicely to the rib cage. The Jazzmaster was more than just a new shape, it was a new guitar from the ground up with proprietary pickup...

Fender's tweed Deluxe in the 1950s was updated to the brownface version from '61-'63 and culminated in the blackface version from late '63 until 1966. Production of the Deluxe Reverb-Amp far outweighed the numbers for the non-Reverb version. The Deluxe-Amp has enough headroom when necessary and plenty of gain on tap when cranked.
This 1965 Fender Deluxe-Amp has just come from the grandson of...

The Gibson ES-335 debuted in 1958 with a revolutionary new design: a double cutaway, thin solid body with hollow wings electric guitar. The thin body of this guitar was constructed of a laminated Maple arched top and back but had a solid center Maple block running down the center of the body. The resulting guitar had a warm tonal response but limited the problem of feedback at high stage volumes...

Gibson’s line of Epiphone branded acoustic guitars gained a new model in 1963: the FT-90 El Dorado. The FT-90 was essentially a long scale Hummingbird with an attractive long pickguard, natural finish (also available on the Hummingbird in ’63), and trapezoid fretboard inlays. The solid Sitka Spruce top and solid Mahogany body make for a fine strumming and fingerstyle acoustic guitar.
This 1968...

Ted McCarty’s tenure as president of Gibson from 1949 until 1966 resulted in many great advancements in the electric guitar but his finest may be the ES-335 model in 1958. The design took advantage of Gibson’s reputation for warm hollow body tone but also decreased the propensity to feedback at high stage volumes. The thin body was comfortable to hold and and the tune-o-matic bridge (another...

The Echoplex EM-1 Groupmaster was released in 1971 and was the top of Mike Battle’s Echoplex line. While many of today’s delay units use digital technology to repeat a signal, tape echo machines record a signal to tape and play the signal back at different intervals to achieve an echo sound. The result is a warm, analog tone with pleasing tape machine variables that aren’t easily emulated with...

Leo Fender debuted the “VI” in 1961 as the next model utilizing the patented offset contour waist body after the Jazzmaster. It’s possible that the popularity of Danelectro’s electric baritone guitar (1956) gave rise to Leo’s upgraded version with an additional pickup, fully adjustable floating bridge, and smooth tremolo design. The Fender company updated its own VI in 1963 following the Jaguar...

The 1960s Fender amplifiers with Reverb have been an industry standard for electric guitar tone since their introduction in 1964. The Deluxe Reverb-Amp is the most popular of the line with its manageable ~22 watt output and 12″ speaker. The Reverb and Tremolo that this amp features has become the benchmark by which many other amp builders have based their circuit and tonal aspirations.
This...

Fender’s “Thinline” version of the popular Telecaster model was designed by Roger Rossmeisl and debuted in 1968. After a short time routing the body under the pickguard (called the “Smuggler’s Tele”),Rossmeisl decided instead to chamber the body and added an attractive F hole route in the bass side lower bout. The Thinline was updated to its second version in 1972 with two Seth Lover designed...

The Silvertone brand name was used throughout the 1960s as Sears’s name for all things musical. The Silvertone 1454 model was manufactured by Harmony in Chicago and featured three DeArmond Goldentone pickups commonly known as Gold Foil pickups. The 1454 is unique in that it features individual on/off switches, volume, and tone knobs for each pickup.
This 1454 has survived in very nice...

The Ibanez Tube Screamer TS-9 debuted in 1982 and lasted only until it was updated to the TS-10 in 1985. The TS-9’s circuitry was almost identical to the TS-808 except that the output section was updated which resulted in it having a bit brighter and slightly more cutting tone. The Tube Screamer’s popularity grew and the TS-9 was eventually reissued in 1992. For more information on vintage Tube...

The Fender Mustang debuted in 1964 as a quality electric guitar at an affordable price. Leo’s team packed it with cool features like the offset waist body shape, tremolo tailpiece, and two pickups with phase switchable wiring. Fender introduced the veneer Rosewood fretboard in place of the slab in 1962 but a few short scale Fenders escaped the factory with slab Rosewood fretboard between August...

Prior to Fender releasing the Reverb-Amp line in 1964, guitar players utilized an external Reverb Unit in the signal chain to get that thick swampy reverb tone out of their Fender amp. The (internal) Reverb-Amps are convenient and sound wonderful but it’s hard to beat the wide range of Reverb tone from dry to total reverb monsoon.
This early 1964 Fender Reverb Unit with cover has just come out...

From the 1962 Harmony Catalog, “Want unusual sound effects while playing? Would you enjoy tremolo at your fingertips, in your guitar, as now attainable only thru certain circuit amplifiers? Then Harmony’s Vibra-Jet Tremolo Electric is for you! Enjoy pulsating tremolo through your guitar, not your amplifier.” While the built in tremolo effect never really caught on in the guitar world, Harmony’s...

The Silvertone 1342 debuted in the 1950 Sears catalog in a rare but aesthetically pleasing trapezoidal cabinet shape and a green and tan color scheme. The catalog described the shape of the amp as “low, wide and handsome”. The 1342’s amplifier featured one microphone channel with one input and one instrument channel with two inputs and produced about 12 watts through two 6V6 power tubes. It had a...

The Silvertone 1488 was the top of the line solid body electric guitar in the Sears catalog in the 1960s. Made by Harmony in Chicago, the 1488 featured three DeArmond made gold foil pickups, individual rocker switches for each pickup and a unique volume-tone-tone-tone control layout. The Bobkat shaped body is actually slightly larger than the Harmony version.
This 1965 Silvertone 1488 is in...

We've got two of these in the shop right now. This one is very clean and has hardly been played at all. It has had no repairs except for adding a little glue to seal up that hairline crack. It is loud and sweet and ready for you. Comes with the original canvas bag.

Ever come across one of these? This Epiphone Model 0 is construction of solid Mahogany throughout. The neck joins the body at the 13th fret and the body features X style bracing with a single tone bar. The guitar is very lightly constructed.
Repairs include a neck set, a cut down saddle and one replaced tuner button. The guitar is playable in it's current condition but would benefit from...